How homes in Angerstein Road, Portsmouth are being transformed into social housing by Portsmouth Community Housing Trust and Vivid

If you did take a pause on the pavement outside you would notice that the houses are careworn, showing the signs of years without attention. But behind the shabby facade, the faded blue doors, the weather-worn plasterwork and the dripping guttering, hides a story of hope. These houses in Angerstein Road may be unlived in, but they are certainly not unloved.

For they bring with them the promise of new beginnings - the first seeds planted by the Portsmouth Community Housing Trust as it aims to play its part in easing the plight of homeless families by providing social housing for people on the city's waiting list.

The trust has a vision of taking over properties in the city that need a lot of love and attention and converting them to provide good quality and affordable housing for the people of Portsmouth.

And after two years of patient, painstaking - and sometimes painful - deliberations, discussions and decision-making, the trust’s first foray in Angerstein Road continues to make slow but steady progress.

Last month Portsmouth City Council’s communities and central services committee agreed that the freehold of the sites can be temporarily given to Vivid as it has the capacity to get the project moving and the two properties regenerated so they are fit for habitation, before handing them back to the trust.

Vivid has stepped forward to offer its help out but its commitment remains conditional on it being satisfied the project is viable.

For Father Bob White - a true champion of the community who finds time to be trust chairman among the multiple projects he is involved in for the greater good of Portsmouth - it would be a massive step forward after years of hard work.

The Vicar of St Mary’s in Fratton said: ‘Our trust’s mission states: Everyone deserves a place they can rely on; a safe foundation on which to build a good life. And Angerstein Road provided the trust with our first opportunity to provide this to some of the most vulnerable people in Portsmouth.

‘We knew these properties needed love - but we did not necessarily understand the amount of attention which would also be required. However we remain confident that we can really start to build that good life in this small corner of North End.’

So all seems good in Angerstein Road. But the progress to date hides years of hard work behind the scenes to get the trust up and running and the homes plan off the ground.

At the committee meeting Councillor Jeanette Smith voiced her concerns over why it had taken so long to get this stage. She had a valid point, having signed off on the first part of proposals back in 2018. That was when the council gifted the trust the properties, which had been the headquarters of the Portsmouth Abuse and Rape Counselling Service before its move to Fratton.

A council spokesperson suggested that gifting the properties had been a ‘complicated transaction and not a straightforward disposal’. Seven words which could not adequately do justice to the work put in by Father Bob and his fellow trust members who had been valiantly wrestling with taking the project forward since 2018.

On one side was the state of the properties. A full structural survey was required, architects needed to come up with plans to transform them into self-contained units for four families and then there would be the need for planning permission before a major internal remodelling and modernising project could commence.

All this costs money upfront. Homes England and the Bishop of Portsmouth (using the EC Roberts Trust) had kickstarted the trust with grants but more long-term streams of funding would be needed and the trust would need to be seen as a ‘registered provider’ of accommodation, which involved hoops of all shapes and sizes to jump through. A business plan would need to prove that, after significant sums of money had been invested to make the properties fit for their new purpose, running them would be financially viable both for families seeking an affordable home to rent and to ensure the trust kept itself afloat.

And then there was the matter of the legal terms to be agreed with the council - whose officers have given great support to the trust to help it navigate its way through these challenges.

Father Bob and his band of trustees - ably assisted by indispensable project manager Andrew Mason - had a lot on their plates. He said: ‘We are a small group of volunteers who have come together to do something to improve Portsmouth. But there has been a lot to juggle. We all have our own professional and personal lives but threw ourselves into what is a fantastic project. We had the vision and the passion - but that could only get us so far.

‘It soon became clear we needed to be experts in legal matters, planning, building repairs and regulations and fundraising bids among a host of other things - so at times we did find ourselves bogged down.

‘At one stage we thought we would simplify what needed to be done in a ‘simple’ flowchart. But this revealed 17 different aspects which we needed to settle to move things forward - and all were interconnected in some way. Which meant that any one decision we made along the way would impact on a number of decisions further down the line and so it was - and remains to this day - a very complex project.’

He added: ‘There is still much to do but we are in a good place. And that now also means looking for other suitable properties around the city. We’ve learnt so much from what we have achieved with our first initiative and - while progress on that will continue in the background for many months to come - we now want to move on to the next challenge.’

When taking a wander around the properties in Angerstein Road it’s only the noise of passing cars that competes with the echoes of footsteps as you pad around the shells of these two properties.

But the hope burns brightly that one day the renovated rooms will be chiming to the happier sounds of life for families looking to get themselves back on track through whatever hardship they have suffered.

PCHT membership

In 1973 a group of activists worked together to form Portsmouth Housing Association. These individuals shared a passion and commitment to address the root causes of homelessness – the provision of affordable homes.

Fast forward nearly a half a century, the problems of homelessness in Portsmouth might look a little different, but they’re still very much alive. The growing demand and need for affordable housing continues as does the number of families and individuals who are ‘homeless’ - which led to the creation of Portsmouth Community Housing Trust (PCHT).

Its mission is to take ownership or management of properties to provide accommodation which meets priority housing need - and Angesterin Road is the first physical evidence of that.

Chaired by vicar of St Mary’s Fr Bob White, the trust’s board consists of; Carole Damper, chief executive officer of the Roberts Centre - based in Landport and dedicated to helping disadvantaged families; Tracey Ansell, Minister at North End Baptist Church and Chair of Trustees for Hope Into Action Portsmouth, which has a mission to see every church supporting a house for homeless people; and Editor of The News Mark Waldron.

The board is now looking for members to join the trust and deliver the vision. Helping hands fall into many categories. Would-be members may have professional skills and the time to devote their expertise to the cause. They could belong to a company or organisation which is looking to support the homeless. They could be anyone with an interest in homlesesness and housing issues and a desire to make a difference. Or it could be someone with a property which the trust would be interested in delivering back to the community as affordable housing.

Fr Bob said: ‘Now we are close to achieving the first project we hope to draw on the lessons learnt and begin to grow and expand. We want to bring other properties that are not lived in on to the market, to be further signs of hope and opportunity for those who are homeless.

‘We are looking for people who share the same passion to address the root causes of homelessness and to help increase the provision of affordable homes. We hope that others will share our commitment and join us in seeking to serve those in need in our community.’

For more information go to portsmouthcht.org.uk/ or email [email protected].